English

Optimal quantum source coding with quantum information at the encoder and decoder

Quantum Physics 2020-09-29 v2

Abstract

Consider many instances of an arbitrary quadripartite pure state of four quantum systems ABCD. Alice holds the AC part of each state, Bob holds B, while D represents all other parties correlated with ABC. Alice is required to redistribute the C systems to Bob while asymptotically preserving the overall purity. We prove that this is possible using Q qubits of communication and E ebits of shared entanglement between Alice and Bob, provided that Q geq I(C;D|B)/2 and Q+E geq H(C|B), proving the optimality of the Luo-Devetak outer bound. The optimal qubit rate provides the first known operational interpretation of quantum conditional mutual information. We also show how our protocol leads to a fully operational proof of strong subadditivity and uncover a general organizing principle, in analogy to thermodynamics, that underlies the optimal rates.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0706.2907,
  title  = {Optimal quantum source coding with quantum information at the encoder and decoder},
  author = {Jon Yard and Igor Devetak},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0706.2907},
  year   = {2020}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T08:40:08.388Z